Obama Takes Aim at Long Lines: QLess Provides Solution

'[You] waited in line for a long time... By the way, we have to fix that.' -President Barack Obama, Election Acceptance Speech, Nov. 6, 2012

Voters wait in line tocast their ballots at a polling station, Tuesday, in Miami. (PRNewsFoto/QLess, Inc., Tim Chapman, The Miami Herald/AP)

Voters wait in line tocast their ballots at a polling station, Tuesday, in Miami. (PRNewsFoto/QLess, Inc., Tim Chapman, The Miami Herald/AP)

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- President Obama delivered his acceptance speech just after midnight on Tuesday, saying, "By the way, we have to fix that," in reference to long voting lines. Ironically, people throughout the country waited in line to vote while he spoke those words. Many of them rallied around the Twitter hashtag #StayInLine, while nearly all spent multiple hours standing in line to exercise this most basic of American rights.

Meanwhile, Denver had already incorporated a "fix" with the first and only integrated Mobile Queue Management and Mobile CRM platform – QLess. The result was that at several Presidential polling stations in Denver, voters did not have to stand in line. Not because voters skipped the line, nor due to a drop in turnout. Instead, the patent-pending QLess platform allowed voters to wait in line – without physically standing in line.

The City of Denver leveraged QLess technology to quickly and effectively get people in and out of polling stations, with little physical wait time. They were able to enter a virtual, mobile queue via the web or by using a touch screen kiosk. The QLess system also allows voters to use any phone to "get in line" without standing in line.

QLess also provided voters interactive options to make adjustments to their place in line – for instance, if running late, they could push themselves back in line. Walk-in customers used self-service kiosks and could return later, closer to voting time to check the QLess Queue Monitor. All QLess voters could be notified by text or phone call as their turn approached. This level of interactivity is unique to QLess, creating an unrivaled customer experience and enabling voters to continue with their lives while they wait.

"QLess has been winning awards for years and saving millions of citizens well over a century of waiting in line. There is not a single QLess government establishment that has gone back to standing in line after trying QLess. The City of Denver is now applying QLess to a new application, blazing a path to end to the era of endless lines. Perhaps most importantly, QLess will help turn out more voters while further securing the voting process," said QLess CEO, Dr. Alex Bäcker.

QLess embeds integrity into the voting process and reduces congestion, allowing Boards of Elections to retain their focus on the act of casting legitimate ballots. QLess Mobile Queue Management helps improve voter service and reduce stress on volunteer staff, while eliminating the security issues, identity theft, and software glitches that can compromise electronic and online voting systems.

Analytics tools are also available, like rich data capture and analysis of voter and staff metrics – including SMS exit polling. For example, QLess can eliminate verbal exit polling, instead sending an automatic SMS poll after a vote is cast. Data can be aggregated in real time to support results projections.

Clients say that QLess Mobile Queue Managment is easy-to-use, web-based, customizable and scalable technology; it works when demand is extremely high, and physical lines unbearably long. In addition, QLess has no hidden costs or costly upgrades. Government clients label QLess a "leapfrog" technology, and customer service is rated highly. These clients, in many cases after upgrades and re-investments, are switching away from static, expensive, and obsolete ticket-based systems that pre-date the internet and cell phones. One DMV client in Missouri said, "If we could get all the major offices in the state to use the system, we could completely change the public's perception of the DMV."